HARDWICKE' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



nS 



Butchli, has announced his discovery of artificial 

 protoplasm. A person who can manufacture that 

 substance is not far from manufacturing rump steaks, 

 or men and women. 



At the last meeting of the Royal Microscopical 

 Society, Dr. Dallinger showed that he could not 

 suppose that any one looking at these foams would 

 regard them as in any way allied to living matter. 

 The more intimately they became acquainted with 

 them the more sure they would become that they were 

 only foams, and that those which appeared under a 

 low power to be so much like tissue were under a 

 high power seen to be minute bubbles, and nothing 

 more. He believed the movements observed would 

 be found to be due to the effect of differences of 

 surface tension, and that the study of them would no 

 doubt help them to understand some of the mechani- 

 cal properties of protoplasm, but they did not leave 

 an impression that they had caused an approximation 

 in the least degree towards the artificial production 

 of protoplasm. 



In a recent number of the "Idler" we were 

 introduced by Mr. Jerome to the idea of an electri- 

 cally-contrived automatic dancer, and the account of 

 its performance is therein detailed with a precision 

 that is almost scientific. Automatism is becoming 

 every day more popular and more important. Mr. 

 Jerome's idea is not novel, for something approach- 

 ing it (with infinitely drier humour) occurs in Mr. 

 Samuel Butler's " Erewhon " one of the most 

 original books of this century. But the "Idler's" 

 idea of on electrical automatic dancer has just come 

 up to my mind on seeing the announcement of a 

 newly-invented electrical piano, which plays by itself. 

 You have only to put the music in an opening at the 

 back (a penny-in-the-slot business), perforated as 

 usual, and turn on the current and be gratified. 



The April number of "Nature Notes " is replete 

 with sport, interesting articles by such well-known 

 lovers of nature as Hamilton Dove, F.Z.S., Ernest 

 Ingersole, and J. J. Platel, B.A. Mr. E. H. Hickey 

 is quite at home in his short criticisms of Roden 

 Noel's poetry, and the notices of new books are very 

 much more carefully and accurately written than the 

 majority of such articles in contemporaries. 



The last issue of the "Midland Naturalist" con- 

 tains " A Trip to Egypt," by W. H. Wilkinson, 

 with detailed accounts of the Pyramids and Sphinx. 

 " The Devonian Rocks of Ilfracombe and Barn- 

 staple," by the Rev. W. Hunt Painter, reports of 

 societies, reviews, etc. etc. 



"Natural Science " for April is full of useful 

 and original matter such as "The Mammals of 

 Kilima-njaro," by the secretary of the Zoological 

 Society, Mr. Sclater ; "Colour Changes in Insects," 

 by George Carpenter; and "Experimental Embry- 



ology," by J. A. Thomas F.Z.S. ; together with 

 "Notes and Comments," "New Books," "Obitu- 

 ary," etc. etc. 



In " Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes " for April 

 will be found a capital paper by M. Dupont, on 

 " The Geological Distribution of the Genus Co/ias," 

 which will be read with interest just now, when 

 every entomologist thinks he knows all about this 

 particular group of butterflies. Several of the 

 "Special and Local Notes" are very original, 

 notably Lamarliere's " Flora of the North, and the 

 Straits of Dover." 



MICROSCOPY. 



M. Tempere's Publications. — We have re- 

 ceived No. 12 of " Le Diatomiste," perhaps the best 

 of the lot, which now completes the first volume. 

 Diatoms have been " looking up " since M. Tempere 

 took them in hand. The beautiful micro-photos of 

 them (four quarto plates) in the present number can 

 hardly fail to appeal to aesthetic tastes. No. 2 of 

 " Le Micrographe Preparateur," edited also by M. 

 Tempere, with the assistance of a group of specialists, 

 throws a larger cast-net. '"Vine Disease" is a 

 specially good paper. The coloured plates are ex- 

 cellent. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Hydrometra gibbifera. — On the 3rd of last 

 March, while out for a ramble, I came across a 

 double row of tiles in a brick-field, which, to my 

 mind, is always a grand hunting-ground for the 

 coleopterist. Between two of these tiles I found a 

 specimen of H. gibbifera (the water-gnat), evidently 

 hibernating, as there was water about six yards away. 

 It was in a position quite unlike that set forth by 

 the Rev. Theodore Wood in " Our Insect Allies," as 

 instead of having the two posterior pairs of leys 

 stretched out almost at full length (as figured), they 

 were bent and drawn quite close around the body. 

 It was in no cocoon, and, when warmed, quite lively. 

 I take it to be a female, as it is very much larger 

 than any other specimens of the same species in my 

 cabinet, and is slightly red on the under side, possibly 

 from its contact with the tiles. I may mention, in 

 conclusion, as an illustration of the fertility of such 

 a hunting-ground, that on the same day (March 3rd) 

 from forty tiles I also took six specimens of lepi- 

 doptera, three different species ; fourteen specimens 

 of coleoptera, six different species ; several other 

 heteroptera, arachnidrc, etc., etc., truly a "happy 

 family ! " There are hundreds of gibbifera on the 

 adjoining pond now (April nth). — Claude Morley, 

 The Museum, Ipswich. 



